Wigan Warriors have entered a dual-registration partnership with Championship outfit Newcastle Thunder in 2022.
The agreement will see the Warriors send talent to the Championship club in order to gain first-team experience while they are out of Matt Peet's first-team squad.
The Warriors had previously been partnered with Swinton but have now switched clubs following their relegation, instead partnering with Thunder, a club that has plenty of links to the Warriors.
Former prop Eamon O’Carroll is the club's head coach while Denis Betts, a club legend at the DW Stadium, is Director of Rugby.
As part of the arrangement, the clubs have already confirmed a pre-season friendly on January 23rd at Kingston Park.
Warriors Head Coach Matt Peet said: “We’ve got a good relationship with Thunder, so they’ll be our partner club this year. The pre-season game is part of that as well as us sharing ideas with Denis (Betts) and Eamon (O’Carroll) about best practice, they will take things from here but also we’ll learn from them. I’m sure you’ll see a few of our players playing for Newcastle this year as players like Sam Halsall did last year.
“The way Sam was looked after, it proved to us that Newcastle was a strong club, a caring club and one we want to do more with going forward.”
O'Carroll added: “Certainly for us the quality of players that we may be able to bring in from Wigan, I saw that today from people who have just joined the first team, they’re learning every day and they’re around good players.
"From our point of view, we offer the opportunity for the players to still remain in a full-time environment and also the opportunity for them to get out of this environment with some exposure to a different setting.”
